Romeo and Juliet Review

Saturday, January 27, 2007

Saturday, 01/27/07

REVIEW: Juliet and Romeo performances are best part of Opera's latest production

By JONATHAN A. NEUFELD
For The Tennessean

It is fitting that the best moments of the Nashville Opera's Friday-night performance of Charles Gounod's Romeo and Juliet were duets between the young lovers singing as one as they play out their tragic fate.

This unity of voice was all the more remarkable as Malinda Haslett's Juliet and Jonathan Boyd's Romeo matured noticeably throughout the Nashville Opera's solid, traditional take on this Shakespearean tale.

For Juliet, this was made obvious by the over-the-top immaturity Haslett was directed to display in the banquet scene where she was introduced to the Capulet crowd. She acted less like a young bride-to-be than like a 5-year-old, dashing from mother to father and burying her face shyly in their chests.

To Haslett's great credit, she gradually infused her voice with ripeness and depth as her character's music and behavior matured. To take one example: At the end of the first act, just after Romeo and Juliet have discovered their love, Juliet's violent and vengeful cousin Tybalt (engagingly sung by Eric Johnston) came onto the scene. In an aside, Juliet forebodingly sang, "In this cradle of hatred our love was born…" Haslett's voice, which had been bright and filled with new love, instantly turned inward and dark. The air of brooding introspection was enhanced both by lighting and staging — time stopped on stage as Juliet saw her own dark future.

While the Tennessee Performing Arts Center's acoustics did not treat Boyd's middle range kindly, his bright and clear tenor, aided by his superb French diction, cut cleanly through in higher registers. The focus of his tone was remarkable. Boyd's is not a rich or glossy voice — there is no syrup here. It has a sharp and powerful punch when he unleashes it, and an easy delicacy otherwise.

Lee Gregory's buoyant, strapping, cocksure Mercutio exuded humor and playful aggression both in his strong and free baritone and in his magnetic physical presence.

Marc Embree embodied Lord Capulet's fatherly pride in the opening scenes and his acting and bearing were captivating throughout. His singing, unfortunately, was another matter. His vibrato seemed to drag him both off tone and behind the pace of the orchestra, and his voice frayed at volume.

Philip Cokorinos' broad and round bass-baritone warmed the soul in Friar Lawrence's first appearance. Finally, Crystal Jarrell made me look forward to hearing her in a part more substantial than Stephano, Gounod's musical afterthought — a part like Kate Pinkerton in the Opera's spring production of Madame Butterfly.

10:53 PM